One Chance

(Popboomerang; US: 15 Sep 2007)

Skipping Girl Vinegar: One Chance

This three-song EP from a fine Melbourne band has all the rootsy feel of a Steve Earle live performance. The title track is the keeper and charmer of the lot, with the handclaps and folksy vibe oozing out of the opening and saturating the listeners. And it’s a real barnstormer despite the mid-tempo tempo, building on the energy and intensity before quickly stopping on a dime. Elsewhere, “Cold Come the Nights” is a harmonica-fuelled number that brings Wilco or Ryan Adams to mind if they were sweeping up the bottle caps, gathering up the plastic cups and mopping the beer from the barroom floor. At just three songs it’s hard to measure a band’s worth, but it’s definitely a band to keep one’s eye and ears out for.

Originally from Cape Breton, MacNeil is currently writing for the Toronto Sun as well as other publications, including All Music Guide, Billboard.com, NME.com, Country Standard Time, Skope Magazine, Chart Magazine, Glide, Ft. Myers Magazine and Celtic Heritage. A graduate of the University of King's College, MacNeil currently resides in Toronto. He has interviewed hundreds of acts ranging from Metallica and AC/DC to Daniel Lanois and Smokey Robinson. MacNeil (modestly referred to as King J to friends), a diehard Philadelphia Flyers fan, has seen the Rolling Stones in a club setting, thereby knowing he will rest in peace at some point down the road. Oh, and he writes for PopMatters.com.